Symbolic Dancing

From The Detroit Times, December 10, 1912. By Berton Braley.
 

 Symbolic dances are the fad
     On many hundred stages;
 We see the dancers, thinly clad,
     All sorts and kinds and ages.
 With filmy draperies that cling
     And weird, uncanny motions,
 They symbolize such things as spring
     And passions and emotions.
 
 They dance a poem writ by Poe
     With great poetic frenzy.
 Their lack of garments goes to show
     They scorn the influenzy;
 They’ll dance a tragedy clear through
     With motions most symbolic
 Although they may appear to you
     As suffering from colic.
 
 In dances they’ll portray the past,
     The future and the present,
 And they’ll present, with detail vast,
     The poet and the peasant;
 They’ll dance a painting or a play,
     A novel, grim or merry,
 And in symbolic wise, some day,
     They’ll dance the dictionary!